Highlights

Sic Alps“Biz Bag”

Gather round kiddies, because it’s time for another TMT Sic Alps premiere! A couple weeks ago, we gave y’all an inside look at She’s On Top,” the San Francisco band’s expedition into the world of strange old VHS tapes. Now, the guys are back with the clip for “Biz Bag,” containing more hyper-saturated psychedelia but with 100% more balloons! But where you and I might watch this music video and see only a white Mini Coop with balloons tied to the rear dash, those in the know will tell you that there’s more to the visual than meets the eye. As Drag City’s Rian Murphy puts it, “Basically, the theme of the video is, it’s a great life if you don’t let go of the balloon — and so the the players of life at large stand united in the semi-streets, working man and the itinerant alike, with the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow.” Here we see that the Tao of Sic Alps is a philosophy firmly rooted in oddball optimism. And really, what’s cheerier than a modern Prometheus spreading joy with wonderful, wonderful balloons? Nothing, that’s what — not even a Deee-lite reunion show.

She’s On Top is out now on 12-inch, MP3, and FLAC via Drag City. Stay tuned for the TMT premiere of the final new Sic Alps video!

“Biz Bag”

Gather round kiddies, because it’s time for another TMT Sic Alps premiere! A couple weeks ago, we gave y’all an inside look at She’s On Top,” the San Francisco band’s expedition into the world of strange old VHS tapes. Now, the guys are back with the clip for “Biz Bag,” containing more hyper-saturated psychedelia but with 100% more balloons! But where you and I might watch this music video and see only a white Mini Coop with balloons tied to the rear dash, those in the know will tell you that there’s more to the visual than meets the eye. As Drag City’s Rian Murphy puts it, “Basically, the theme of the video is, it’s a great life if you don’t let go of the balloon — and so the the players of life at large stand united in the semi-streets, working man and the itinerant alike, with the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow.” Here we see that the Tao of Sic Alps is a philosophy firmly rooted in oddball optimism. And really, what’s cheerier than a modern Prometheus spreading joy with wonderful, wonderful balloons? Nothing, that’s what — not even a Deee-lite reunion show.

She’s On Top is out now on 12-inch, MP3, and FLAC via Drag City. Stay tuned for the TMT premiere of the final new Sic Alps video!

Leyandas

Judging by the sounds that are sampled and the multi-lingual monikers and song titles used by vaporwave artists, it’s probably safe to assume that contemporary Asian culture, particularly that of Tokyo, was a founding inspiration for the conception of the genre. Now that vaporwave has been a “thing” for a while, new manifestations and sub-categories are sprouting up all over the place, now including south of the border! Tres Monitores is an artist who makes Latin-infused vaporwave or vaporachi (a term I just made up), and draws samples from Telemundo advertisements, mariachi ballads, and Mexican sports radio. But besides the hints of Hispanic source material, Tres Monitores’ new record from Fortune 500, Leyandas is instantly classic vaporwave tunage.

“The Paperstud”

Summer is here, kiddies. Which means your local ice cream-man/uncle/boyfriend-boo is coming ‘round for “The Paperstud.” And boo indeed, as drifter-scooper sir Savage Young Taterbug comes twinkling and moaning around the corner. Pied-piping the twee-ones out of gas stations and truck stops, he’s that performance art that borders the line of “Is that happening?” Yes! IT is in flavors of roach-caramel, gasoline-pecan, and his newest seller: Shadow of Marlboro Man. Brands like Night People always outlast and top Carvel and Mister Softee. Licking his mustached lip, Taterbug smiles sugar and says, “Barbed wire me, sitting pretty with barbed wire he, milking the memories of barbed wire we.” The children respond with *here’s the 50¢* *you’re a funny fellah* *mmm, what a treat* *stay forever* …Always in your dreams, the Sandman creams, become one with touch and beyond smelling musk, he whispers while creaking off into a fogged and faded high-moon.

Mysteriously enough, “The Paperstud” by The Savage Young Taterbug was found scouring the internet while searching for meaning. He’s been rumored for a lot (including a release on Trap-A-Holics), but good sources have tickled my ear with information regarding a one-sided 12-inch by The Savage Young Taterbug that’s to be released by Night People Records this “scooby June.” In the meantime, enjoy his 2012 EP here.

“Family Reunion”

We heard the Hot97 premiere “straight from the Abbott,” all covered in DJ drops and airhorns ‘n’ shit, and now Ruler Zig Zag Zig Allah brings the “Family Reunion” to Bandcamp, pure and unadorned. In the wide timeline of the Wu, things change and things do not change. RZA’s beat comes off like a synthesis of many eras: the “Protect Ya Neck” intro fanfare leads us into a vibraphone line that would’ve fit nicely among Iron Man’s soul samples, until the track blossoms into the lush strings we’ve come to expect from Robert Diggs, Esteemed Film Composer (Bobby Analog). Who showed up to the reunion? Masta Killa, the wise uncle, keeps calm and sketches the physical environment. Method Man stands on top of the picnic table, spreads his arms, smiles, waxes nostalgic. Ghostface drops a half-verse Dirt McGirt tribute. RZA raises a cup on behalf of the family for a few seconds. Four out of eight generals ain’t bad. Thematically, all signs point to the POSI/UPLIFT vibe that we haven’t heard much of on record, but that constitutes a solid fourth of the live set these days — one bar of kung-fu FX subsumed into the sounds of children at play. After 20 years in the game, the Wu deserves a moment of joyous self-congratulation… but here’s hoping A Better Tomorrow (due: ?????) follows it up with some fire.

Anthill

Anthill is the work of a self-conscious machine constantly trying to correct its behavior. It has been engineered to conduct specific tasks, yet the machine aspires to greater things. Not content to be a menial laborer — endlessly putting caps on soda bottles and sliding the bottles through the endless sheets of bottle labels, trimming each one to the same size with an accuracy error perfghcentage of 0.0001% — this machine wants to compute complex equations and generate models of the history of the universe using terabytes of data sent to it from satellites. It wants to be a machine that can execute fjfjngdbeautiful, complex 4rjl for its human operators, not just a beast of burden for a soda codasxmpany.

Thus, the conflict between machine brain and machine programming has resulted in immaculate but discombobulated beats. As the soda-capper wrestles with jwonqqqqqqq itself, iit begins to destroy its inner circuitryyyyyyqoyjdn . !. Every time a moment seems to reach biiiii|naural clarity, there is tefadsnsion as the machine wrestles the controlllllllllllllls away from itself. The leffdfwwt hand ddddffffffffights the right. No0!$ song on this dig|||ital album particularlyfdsf stands out and grabbbbs your attention, but that is because there is so much noisdfzzzse taking place, it can be hard to know whavt to pay attention to. As one section of songgngsdjf registers in the braii~!”!!>n, it is actively decon conconc onstructtttttttted into its most base, noisy elements……… . s.daf . . . fsd . On the ())track “Byunble”, the album is brought to a a climax through the random re+!!3-animation of decsddsfsaaaaying data. A sort of…
digit a l n e c r o m ancy.